On a secluded plot of land in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, Brooklyn's Lubrano Ciavarra Architects crafts a modern weekend house designed to frame its landscape. Residents Paul and Sophie wanted to build something that would fit in with its surroundings and allow them to enjoy the nature preserve located adjacent to their three-and-a-half-acre lot. "It's Spartan but warm. It has a modern sensitivity that's practical," says Paul of his new house.

Paul and Sophie wanted to look out and over the preserve, so architect Lea Ciavarra inverted the typical arrangement of floors. She placed the kitchen and living room—where the family spends a lot of its time—on the second story and placed guest rooms on the ground floor. "It's nice to be at leaf height," she says. The residents built the new house on the exact same footprint as the 1960s ranch house that came with the lot. Photo by Chris Cooper.